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Who is an Accessible Toilet for?

No not just a wheelchair user. It could be for someone who has difficulty walking, standing or sitting, people who require the use of access to water after using the toilet. It could be for the hearing impaired, those with visual impairment, learning difficulties or those with mental health problems.

A Radar Key may be bought for a small charge from your local council.

Take with you proof of disability and your home address. Proof of disability may include one of the following:

DLA (Disability living allowance)

Doctor’s letter

Attendance allowance letter

Blue badge plus bill e.g. Council tax or electricity

What should you look for when making sure that a toilet for the Disabled is accessible?

Access should be level, with no rims or steps to trip over.

If a door opens outwards it is important to put a D Bar on the inside of the door, near the handle, along the width of the door to enable a the user to pull the door closed.

Floor surfaces need to be non-slip

There should be an emergency pull cord for assistance

If the door opens inwards, make sure that there is room for a wheelchair user to turn around to shut the door. In fact make sure that there is room for a personal assistant to support the person who is using the toilet. There could be a Dog for the Disabled or a Guide Dog for the blind. Can they work within the area provided?

Make sure that the toilet seat is high or low enough by providing an elevated seat that can hang off the wall when not in use. Use contrasting colours so that the seat can be easily identified.

Provide grab rails on either side of the toilet to give a secure grip so that the person can sit or stand easily, make sure that they fold away behind the toilet when not in use, to enable people who need to transfer from a wheelchair. Make sure there is a contrast in the colour of the walls to the grab rails.

Make sure that the handle to pull the flush is on the same side of access, that it is easy to use for those with limited hand movements (eg a spatula handle)

Keep Rubbish bins and sanitary bins away from the toilet so that a wheelchair user can back up to the toilet to transfer across. Make sure that there is a clinical waste bin, so that larger items, than sanitary ware can be disposed of.

Make sure that there is a full length mirror so that walking disabled and wheelchair users can view themselves easily to ensure they are tidy before leaving the toilet.

Make the sink, soap dispenser and hand drying accessible from the toilet, making sure that they do not interfere with any grab rails which assist the person in standing.

The sink should be fitted with lever handles to enable easy opening and closing.

· Support Plan

· Continuing Health Assessment

· Financial Assessment

· Indicative Amount Panel Approval

· Fairer Charging, Financial Assessment

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As a Service User, I have been going through Personalisation. I am already a user of Direct Payments, where I have chosen to employ my carers and manage the hours when I want, and if I need to change them I negotiate with the people I employ, to work with me to live my life the way I need to. It is important to note that what is right for me, is not right for another person, and other people may still want to have their care personalised with support, with someone else taking the responsibility.

To start with I was assessed by Social Services to look at the needs that I have. This resulted in the amount of hours I would need help and support. I have had a financial assessment. This not only looks at the money I have coming in or going out, but also to look at benefits that I need to apply for. It will then be decided how much I will be able to contribute to the support I need. As the saying goes there is never a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The next stage is a Support Plan, allowing me to make an attempt to fill in a Plan with advice, I will then get to go over it with Social Services.

Some of the Guidelines give a list of things to talk about. They may be everything about my life, partly about my life, or it may have things missing that I want to have put in. In a way it reflects the old way of working to ensure that the needs of daily living are thought about, but allowing me to say – no that is not what I want to do.

So here is the list

Staying as fit and well as possible

Supporting good mental health and emotional wellbeing

Managing my personal care and daily routines

Managing my care and support through the night

Help around my home

Keeping mobile

Managing my personal safety

Managing my finances and personal business

Maintaining close and personal relationships

Keeping in touch with family and friends

Supporting family life

Support with caring for my pets

Getting out and about, being involved in different things

Getting to appointments

Maintaining my religious obseervations

Work, training or education

Helping the friends and family who already help me

Having more independence

Improving the quality of my life

Specialist support

Covering emergency situations

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Personalisation for Me (Cont)

So now to complete the form. There are certain sections such as Who I am? to build a pen picture of my self to include things about my personality, my beliefs, things that are important in my life, my hopes and fears and things people need to know about me for when I need support.

Good Golly Miss Molly! Sang the Swinging Blue Jeans in 1964, but just as this has been brought out by lots of groups since 1958 with Little Richard, the expressions are still the same and other people want to know all about you time after time.

Interesting is it not, that if you don’t need support you never have to prove yourself to anyone? Even if you go for an interview. Well the positive side of this is that I’ve got my chance now to do myself justice, and if people want to know that you are not telling lies or trying to get money under false pretences here we go.

Onwards and upwards to the positives and “What is already working well in my life… to move to the downward and inward depressive side “What is not working well in my life” There are enough bad things to deal with! However with that statement you get the follow through of what you would like support with to enable you to do it. It is not always easy to tell the good things that could come out of the bad things, but we are being given a very good opportunity.

Do people believe it is right that you should make yourself feel better by writing what you can’t do? Try it.

I am a really Positive Person. there is always something positive about anything that happens. Why don’t you give it a go?

So with support to develop new ways of thinking, I have to ask for information. Isn’t it amazing what you don’t know you need to know, until someone comes along with a gift of asking questions outside the Box. Well wouldn’t it be useful to be signposted? If you think about it, when you want to drive from A to B, you could use a variety of signposts. To start with you could use a road map, you could use the internet such as a route planner, in the old days the AA would provide one, if you phoned them (if you were a member). Or theres the “Sat Nav”. Well at the moment, yes I can “Google” it, but what if I don’t know what is available to me?

This is where the forms that Social Services ask many questions with, that may help you to think outside the box!

Its overall aim is for social care service users to have control over how money allocated to their care is spent. It includes within its remit direct payments, individual budgets, personal budgets, user-led services, self-directed support and the In Control pilots. Self-assessment is also a cornerstone of personalisation. Giving service users the opportunity to assess their own care and support needs as well as deciding how their individual budgets are spent are central planks of the agenda.